Microsoft Windows Server 2008, with built-in Web and virtualization technologies, enables you to increase the reliability and flexibility of your server infrastructure. New virtualization tools, Web resources, and security enhancements help you save time, reduce costs, and provide an environment for a dynamic and optimised data centre. Powerful new tools like IIS7, Windows Server Manager, and Windows PowerShell™, allow you to have more control over your servers and streamline Web, configuration and management tasks. Advanced security and reliability enhancements like Network Access Protection (NAP) and the Read-Only Domain Controller (RODC) harden the operating system and protect your server environment to ensure you have a solid foundation on which to build your business.

What's New and Improved?

WEB
Windows Server 2008 gives you the ability to deliver rich Web-based experiences efficiently and effectively, with improved administration and diagnostics, development and application tools and lower infrastructure costs.

- Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0: More than a Web server, Internet Information Services 7.0 provides a secure, easy to manage, highly modular environment for developing and reliably hosting Web-based applications and services.
- Microsoft Windows SharePoint® Services: Windows SharePoint Services helps organisations increase productivity by creating Web sites where users can collaborate on documents, tasks and events and easily share contacts and other information.

VIRTUALIZATION
With its built-in server virtualization technology, Windows Server 2008 enables you to reduce costs, increase hardware use, optimise your infrastructure and improve server availability.

- Hyper-V enables organisations to consolidate servers and reduce the cost of server ownership by maximising hardware use, consolidating workloads and reducing management costs.
- Another form of virtualization is Presentation Virtualization, which is the ability to detach the application presentation layer, or the user interface, from the host operating system. The Presentation Virtualization features in Windows Server 2008 Terminal Services Gateway and Terminal Services RemoteApp provide centralised application access with integration.
- New Terminal Services Capabilities: Terminal Services provides technologies that enable access, from almost any computing device, to a server running Windows based programs or the full Windows desktop. Terminal Services provide centralised application access as well as new Terminal Services Gateway (TS Gateway), TS Remote Programs and strong security that allows users remote access without a virtual private network (VPN) connection.

SECURITY
Windows Server 2008 is the most secure Windows Server ever. Its hardened operating system and security innovations, including Network Access Protection, Federated Rights Management, and Read-Only Domain Controller, provide unprecedented levels of protection for your network, your data and your business.

- Network Access Protection: NAP prevents unhealthy computers from accessing and compromising an organisation’s network. NAP is used to configure and enforce client health requirements, and to update, or remediate, noncompliant client computers before they can connect to the corporate network.
- Read-only Domain Controller: Increases security for branch office Domain Controllers where physical security cannot be guaranteed. RODC provides local authentication to branch office users without deploying a full, writeable copy of the Active Directory® database which might be subject to corruption or compromise.
- Active Directory Federation Services: (AD FS) provides a highly extensible and secure identity access solution that can operate across multiple environments. Using AD FS provides browser-based clients, both inside and outside the network, access to protected, Internet-facing applications, even when user accounts and applications are located in different networks or organisations. This allows organisations to securely collaborate using their existing user account infrastructure.

SOLID FOUNDATION FOR YOUR BUSINESS WORKLOADING
Windows Server 2008 is the most flexible and robust Windows Server operating system to date. With new technologies and features such as Server Core, Windows PowerShell, Windows Deployment Services, and enhanced networking and clustering technologies, Windows Server 2008 provides you with the most versatile and reliable Windows environment for all of your workload and application requirements.

- Server Management: The new Server Manager tool provides a great, out-of-the-box experience for adding, configuring and managing server roles, role services and features.
- Windows PowerShell: Windows PowerShell is a new interactive command-line, task-based scripting language that enables administrators to securely automate and customise system management tasks.
- Server Core: Beginning with Windows Server 2008, the Server Core installation option is a new feature that lets administrators install Windows Server 2008 with only the components that the administrator wants and without any extra overhead. Since there are fewer files installed and running on the server, there are fewer attack vectors exposed to the network and therefore less of an attack surface.

When meeting with a key business decision maker, here are some messages to communicate, and questions to ask regarding how Windows Server 2008 can help their organisation.

BUSINESS DECISION MAKER (BDM)

Message: Reduce cost and complexity with Windows Server 2008.

Questions That Matter:
- How do I get the best return on investment (ROI) on my IT infrastructure?
- How do I reduce cost and complexity in the IT system?
- How can I make sure our systems are secure and that I can track information needed for U.S. regulations, like SOX and HIPAA?

TECHNICAL DECISION MAKER (TDM)

Message: Windows Server 2008 simplifies infrastructure and management

Questions That Matter:
- How do I use my current servers better, to keep from buying a new server every time we add an application or service?
- How can I manage remote sites and branch offices more securely?
- How can we leverage IT to become more efficient, so the department is a strategic asset for the organisation?

IT PROFESSIONAL

Message: Windows Server 2008 helps automate everyday tasks, freeing IT professionals to spend more time on high-value work that benefits their organisation.

Questions That Matter:
- Why is updating the operating system and applying security patches so hard?
- How can I protect against users spreading viruses and malware on the system from mobile devices?
- Why can’t I view server information from one place?

WINDOWS SERVER 2003
This section summarises some of the enhancements Windows Server 2008 provides in relation to Windows Server 2003. In Windows Server 2003, server roles and role management was fragmented across multiple tools, including Windows Server 2003 Setup, Post-Setup Security Updates, Manage Your Server, Configure Your Server Wizard, Remove Windows Components and the Computer Management Security Configuration Wizard.

Opportunities: Windows Server 2008 provides enhancements over Windows Server 2003 RS2, including:
- Easier product installation, initial configuration and server management by means of the new Server Manager console.
- Increased protection with operating system hardening and policy-based management.
- Greater flexibility with integrated server virtualization, centralised application access, extensible Web solutions and improved deployment.
- TS Gateway allows authorised remote users to log on to terminal servers on a corporate network from anywhere, using the Internet.
- Terminal Services Remote Programs (TS RemoteApp) provides the ability to run both local and remotely-hosted programs on a Windows desktop PC.
- With TS Web Access, users can visit a Web site, either from the Internet or from an intranet, to access a list of available Remote Applications that can be launched with a click.

Solution Selling Tools

HANDLING TOP OBJECTIONS

Listen for: Windows Server 2008 is just an update to the operating system.
Response: Windows Server 2008 is the next generation of the Windows Server operating system that helps IT professionals maximise control over their infrastructure while providing enhanced availability and management capabilities, leading to a significantly more secure, reliable server environment than ever before.

Listen for: Linux/Apache is a much more manageable Web platform.
Response: IIS 7.0 provides significant enhancements, including a completely modular implementation, so only the modules that you require need to be installed.

- Internet Information Services 7.0
- Network Access Protection and Enforcement
- Platform Networking
- Remote Infrastructure
- Server Core
- Server Manager
- Storage and Print Features
- Terminal Services
- Windows PowerShell
- Windows Server Virtualization

For further information, contact Licensing on 0118 9898 240 or email licensing@bluesolutions.co.uk

For further information, contact Licensing on 0118 9898 240 or email licensing@bluesolutions.co.uk

Processor
Minimum - 1 GHz (x86 processor) or 1.4 GHz (x64 processor)
Recommended - 2 GHz or faster
Note - An Intel Itanium 2 processor is required for Windows Server 2008 for Itanium-Based Systems

Memory
Minimum - 512 MB RAM
Recommend - 2 GB RAM or greater
Optimal - 2 GB RAM (Full installation) or 1 GB RAM (Server Core installation) or more
Maximum - (32-bit systems): 4 GB (Standard) or 64 GB (Enterprise and Datacenter)
Maximum - (64-bit systems): 32 GB (Standard) or 2 TB (Enterprise, Datacenter and Itanium-Based Systems)

Available Disk Space
Minimum - 10 GB
Recommend - 40 GB or greater
Note - Computers with more than 16 GB of RAM will require more disk space for paging, hibernation and dump files

Drive
DVD-ROM drive

Display
Super VGA (800 x 600) or higher resolution monitor

Other
Keyboard and Microsoft Mouse or compatible pointing device

UK Partner Site: www.microsoft.com/uk/partner/heroes
UK Customer Site: www.microsoft.com/uk/heroeshappenhere
ADD-202 Windows Server 2008 Core Technical Overview: http://technet.microsoft.com
ADD-306 Active Directory Domain Services (AD DS) in Windows Server Technical Overview: http://technet.microsoft.com
Windows Server 2008 Product Overview: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver2008 http://www.softricity.com/products/virtualization.asp

www.microsoft.com/virtualization

http://www.microsoft.com/business/peopleready/coreinfra/default.mspx

Compare Windows Server, Linux and UNIX: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver/compare/default.mspx
IT Showcase Windows Server Content: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb687806.aspx